It's fine, working under the lights of a bank. But it's something special performing in front of a spotlight.
This is Stacey Lindell, formerly of Moorhead, now of Burnsville, Minn., who works for a Wells Fargo bank in Minneapolis but who has show business in both her blood and genes.
Stacey recently appeared in "Hormel Girls," a production staged in St. Paul, based on the real-life story of a band of post-World World II women who put on musical shows to promote Hormel products.
Donata Nellermoe, Fargo, was one of the original Hormel Girls invited to the play's premiere performance. Because a friend told her a Moorhead girl was in it, Donata connected with Stacey, and the two had a long talk.
"It was fun to talk with her and listen to her share some of her experiences as a Hormel Girl," Stacey says.
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The play now is closed, but when it was running, it was so popular it was extended.
Stacey's role wasn't exactly the story of her own life. It called for her to be a California girl who joins the Hormel Girls and falls in love with the Girls' tour manager.
Stacey was born in Morris, Minn., grew up in Moorhead, and is single. But the key aspect of her role holds true: She loves to sing, dance and act.
She appeared in several Moorhead High School productions, including "Sound of Music" (she played Maria), was in several musical groups, was an all-state choir member and competed in several solo and ensemble events.
She studied voice with Lucy Thrasher at Concordia College after being selected for the Lake Region Arts Council mentorship program, and took ballet and jazz classes at the Red River Dance and Performing Co., Fargo.
After graduating from high school in 1996, she attended Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn., where to nobody's surprise she was in many theater productions and sang with the college choir.
Right after graduating in 2000 she auditioned for professional theater companies and won roles in many musical theater and operetta productions.
Somehow in there she found time to go on national tours, which brought her back to the Fargo-Moorhead area: She was in "A Christmas Carol" at the Fargo Theatre in 2001 and in "Broadway's Legendary Ladies" in Detroit Lakes, Minn., in 2006.
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With all this, asking if Stacey comes from a musical family is like asking if Rodgers and Hammerstein could write music.
Her parents are David and Rebecca Lindell, Moorhead, both of whom are singers who met, appropriately enough, in the Minnesota State University Moorhead choir.
David is a former music teacher and was the children's choir director at Trinity Lutheran Church, Moorhead, for many years. One of the members of that choir was Stacey.
Both David and Rebecca were charter members of the Fargo-Moorhead Master Chorale and sang with it for 19 years. They also have performed with the Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera and, fittingly, the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theater, because Stacey had a major role in the theater's production of "Paint Your Wagon" when she was a high school senior.
And let's not forget Stacey's two siblings: Sara Lindell-Woody, Farmington, Minn., who was a music education major at Concordia, sang in the choir and had lead roles in several Straw Hat Player productions (she played the lead role in "Annie" when she was 10); and Jeremy, Moorhead, who has a beautiful voice, too, and who also performed with the Straw Hat Players.
"I grew up singing with my family," Stacey tells Neighbors, "and we still often sing together in church or just for fun. They definitely gave me a strong foundation on which to build, and a deep love for music and performing."
And so Stacey Lindell, the talented song-and-dance gal from Moorhead, continues her job at the bank while auditioning for more musical theater roles. Her next gig: singing at a Minneapolis Musical Theatre benefit in February.
As they say in show business, "Break a leg, Stacey."
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Area woman loves spotlight Bob Lind 20080113
